ECM Records Releasing Entire Catalog to Streaming Outlets

Big news for fans of Keith Jarrett, Pat Metheny, John Abercrombie, Vijay Iyer, and countless other jazz, contemporary classical, and New Age artists: The ECM Records catalog is coming to Spotify, Apple Music, Tidal, and other major streaming services. Previously, the Munich-based label had remained a holdout against streaming.

Now, ECM has announced that, under a new distribution deal with Universal Music, the entirety of their impressive catalog will be available on streaming by this Friday, November 17. The label’s recorded output timeframe spans just under 50 years. Many releases are already available, including influential, genre-bending LPs like Keith Jarrett’s The Köln Concert, the original 1978 recording of Steve Reich’s Music for 18 Musicians (and other Reich works),Arvo Pärt’s Tabula Rasa, and many more.

In their statement, the label declared that the reason for the change was “unauthorized streaming of recordings via video sharing websites, plus piracy, bootlegs, and a proliferation of illegal download sites.” They emphasized that they believed it was “important to make the catalog accessible within a framework where copyrights are respected.”